******************************
  What's New in GetFEM++ 1.7
******************************

   Released, 2005/01/05:

   * An important number of improvements have been done on Getfem++ 1.7.
     Note that the next release will be getfem 2.0, some of its changes
     won't maintain backward compatibility with getfem++-1.7:

     * Introduction of the `model brick` system, which provides a
       general framework for the solution of common PDEs. Each brick
       is dedicated to a specific task (i.e. "handle Dirichlet
       conditions", "assembly of the Stokes Problem", "solve a
       linear system", etc.). These bricks are then connected to
       each other. Examples of use can be found in the "tests/"
       directory of getfem++.

     * New models : Small strain plasticity, large strain
       elasticity, contact and friction conditions, linearized
       plates, incompressibility in small and large strain
       elasticity.

     * Simplifications and optimizations in elementary computations.

     * A direct sparse solver (`SuperLU 3.0
       <http://crd.lbl.gov/~xiaoye/SuperLU/>`_) is available "out of
       the box".

     * Ability to export results to `VTK <http://www.vtk.org>`_ and
       `OpenDX <http://www.opendx.org>`_.

   * Major changes in Gmm++ 1.7:

     * New preconditionner ILUTP.

     * A BFGS algorithm has been developped.

     * gmm++ now handles (valid) operations mixing complex and
       scalars.

     * gmm::real_part(V) and gmm::imag_part(V) gives a possibly
       writable reference on the real and imaginary part of a
       complex vector or matrix.

     * The SuperLU interface has been updated for SuperLU 3.0.

getfem-matlab has been renamed "getfem-interface" since it now
provides an interface for Matlab and `Python
<http://www.python.org>`_ (with the `Numarray
<http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray>`_
package). Note that, while it is `documented
<http://home.gna.org/getfem/getfem_python_reference.html>`_ and
working, the python interface is still considered a *work in
progress*. You have to enable it explicitly with ``./configure
--enable-python``. An example of use can be found `here
<http://home.gna.org/getfem/demo_tripod.py.html>`_. An interface to 
the gmm++ sparse matrices and solvers is also provided.
